Thursday, May 29, 2008

So I am already home at this point and boy it has been a whirlwind of a trip. DC was great, it was an amazing and very motivating trip. A lot of driving though. We got back to DiabloFreeride Park Thursday evening and had to get ready to race again. We setup the trailer, and worked on bikes until well after dark. After trailer setup we manged to walk the track just before dark. It was pretty much the same with a few small changes that made it ride a lot better. Friday was a practice day for DH and slalom and also was slalom qualifying. I qualified 1st in slalom which is a first for me at a big event. Saturday we qualified for DH and I took 17th. That evening we raced slalom and after many delays from the DH qualifying we ran out of daylight. The ski lights came on and it was on with the show. I was riding good but had a hard go with the lighting just between sunset and fully dark. Everyone had a hard time with it. I made some big mistakes and missed making it to the next round by .18 of a second. Very frustrated with myself but it was still cool to quali first. Sunday was DH, and the track got really fast and really rough. It is amazing what 550 racers can do to a track when they ride it non stop. I had a good race run with some really fast sections, but I just didn't link things together how I needed to. I ended up 16th and 5 seconds off of 5th. I was again great time on the bike and I really feel like things are coming around. Sunday night we headed to the Red Bull after party and Sharp Shooters finals. This was a contest for the photographers with an all expense paid trip to a Red Bull event on the line. Well lets just say you will be seeing the shots soon and the winner is a beauty. Monday was the long drive home, and boy it is good to be home. This weekend I will be in Raleigh for the grand opening and fundraiser at a new city bike park. Pictures, pictures, pictures, I know I will try to get some.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Hey Everybody, it's been a while since I last wrote and since then I have put a few thousand miles on my truck. I left last Tuesday headed towards Canada. Along the way I stopped to see some friends in Virginia and New York. Wednesday we picked up teammate Curtis Keene in Newark NJ. He was fresh back to the states from the first World Cup in Slovenia. Thursday we picked up "The Kid" teammate Andy Becker in Albany NY. Friday morning we were up early and on our way to Canada. The border crossing was fun as always, we got held for awhile because of the kid. Apparently if you are a 15 year old from California trying to cross into French Canada with a bunch of people that don't share a common last name it throws up a few red flags, who knew? Anyways we were finally to Bromont, where we realized that there was a practice going on that was not on the schedule. We grabbed the bikes and started to ride one of the most fun tracks of all time. This track will be used at the World Cup race later in the year. This race was a Canada Cup, which is their national series. Saturday practice was 9 am to 5 pm which has to be the best practice schedule ever, so many runs. Sunday we raced and it was super fun. I got pretty sick while in Canada and didn't have the best race but it was great time on the bike and my bike finally feels like "my bike". Curtis took 4th and good friend Geritt took the win, he was pinned all week and I was excited to see him on top. I am looking forward to the US open this coming weekend in New Jersey. Currently we are in Washington DC checking out the sites and waiting for the rest of the team to arrive for a photo shoot. TEAM AMERICA!!!!!!! ____ yeah!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Just when I got back in town there was a pump track party in Asheville. It was a ton of fun with lots of kids, big and small alike. Here are some pics Robert Seth of Kinetic-Images.com took of one of the bigger kids having some fun.

This is trying to double out of an over 90 degree berm. Geritt tried it and this is my first attempt.

There has been some grumbling that I never crash, quite the opposite this year. Here is proof of what happens when you push just a little to hard. believe it or not I was actually headed the same direction as in the picture above.

So Sunday we raced super D at the king of the lake race. It is a really fun track with about one minute of pedaling up top and two minutes of fun at the bottom. It was a beautiful day and after Saturday hard to get motivated to head up the hill for practice. Wes and I lounged for a couple hours in the sun before we ever thought about riding our bikes. Once on the hill I realized just how tired I was from the day before. I did almost 2 full practice runs and called it good. Time to lounge in the sun some more. Finally we headed up to race. I had a pretty good run and found myself sitting in first with a few second buffer over Andy Devault. We pedaled around to cool down together and both quickly realized how much the other didn't want to have to do another run (it was a best of two run format). A quick gentleman's handshake later and we were on our way into the woods to do some spectating and cheering. Well it worked out for both of us, as no one was able to best our times. Another great day of racing and big thanks to everyone who made it happen. Pictures are up at Kinetic.images.com under event coverage.

Saturday night, just got back to the hotel after a great day of racing. Wes, Danny, Eddie, and I headed down yesterday to Wilkesboro for the first round of the king of the lake series. It is an interesting format, we raced a cross country time trial this morning and then a dual slalom this afternoon. Tomorrow we will race a super d race which is a really pedaly downhill race. What makes the format so cool is the emphasis is on the overall points from all events. Anyways the TT was sick. The most fun 8 mile section of trail I have ever ridden. Wes and I have talked a little smack about this event and when it came time to race I went off first and he started one minute behind me. Talk about running scared for 8 miles. It was super fun and somehow I managed to hold him off, not by much (7 seconds) but enough to not be passed. Wes took the overall win up on me by 52 seconds, I came in second with a pretty good margin over 3rd. It was hard! 34mins 59secs average heart rate 182 bpm. Hard!!!!! Next up was slalom. It was a really fun course and there were some really good riders on hand. Wes and I met up first round and we agreed it would only be fair if I didn't pedal. I managed to make it out of that round ok. Next round it got a lot harder, I met Dwight, a super fast bmx racer from Raleigh. He threw down a great gate and we pulled even through the first few turns. It was a great race bu I ended up taking it and heading to the finals with Joe Haley. For those of you that don't know Haley took 4th at the national championships in Vermont last year. Our runs could of been the finals at the national champs this year. I gave it all I had and think he did to. We were flat out, in the end I barely took the win. It was slalom racing at its best. Big thanks to all the guys at Brushy Mountain Cycling Club for a great day of racing and looking forward to another tomorrow with the super D. Check out more at BMCC